Book Review: A Scandalous Scot by Karen Ranney

In order to properly appreciate A Scandalous Scot, readers will have to willfully suspend their disbelief and buy into the premise that a wealthy earl would ever marry a scullery maid just because he was concerned about her reputation.

I am not such a reader. Therefore, I did not appreciate this book. Alas.

Here we meet Jean MacDonald, a scullery maid. At one point, she was a member of Scotland’s middle class, but now she serves as a lowly servant in Ballindair, a 14th century castle. The reason for her (and her sister’s) fall from grace? It’s a mystery!

Here we also meet Morgan MacCraig, the lord of the castle. He’s spent much of his time as an influential politician in London, but he’s returned to his childhood home in disgrace. Why disgrace? Because he divorced his unfaithful wife!

Jean and Morgan literally bump into each other, and are both terribly annoyed by the other’s personality. Except after a few weeks of sniping at each other, Morgan manages to compromise Jean, and then he…marries her? Yeah, the author really lost me there.

I don’t care how unconventional or eccentric your earl is, he’s almost 100% not going to marry a scullery maid. This isn’t Cinderella, you guys. I put up with a lot in my romance novels, and I forgive a lot of very strange plot twists. But Karen Ranney really went too far with A Scandalous Scot. Like, way far. 100 leagues beyond the limit of my willingness to suspend disbelief.

So, obviously the main problem is that I didn’t buy the book’s major premise. There were other problems as well—for instance, the book really seems to hate women. See, after how terribly his wife treated him back in London, Morgan now hates all females indiscriminately. It’s your typical “I was wronged by a woman once and now I’m certain you’re all a race of whores and deceivers!” bullshit. The great thing for Morgan (and Jean?) is that Jean is like the antithesis to his ex-wife. Wife was blonde? Jean is brunette! Wife was pretty? Jean is ugly! Wife was stupid? Jean is smart! Wife liked nice clothes? Jean doesn’t give a rat’s ass about her clothes! Etcetera, etcetera. You get the picture.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being plain, brown-haired, or smart. But there is also nothing wrong with being blonde, pretty, and fashionable. What Ranney does wrong with this book is that she codes all the “villainous” women as beautiful, vapid harlots, all so her protagonist, Jean, can look like a saint. It’s far too similar to the crappy “Not like other girls!” line of characterization that we see often in young adult fiction and on TV.

Also, I have never seen virginity fetishized at such an obscene level as in this novel.

An example:

“I don’t require a wife who’s well-traveled. I would hope you wouldn’t be ‘well-traveled’ until after our marriage.”

“I was speaking of visiting other places, Your Lordship,” she said, mildly affronted.

“I wasn’t.”

Follow-up:

“I’ve never bedded anyone. I don’t know anything about it. You will find me massively inept. I haven’t, in your parlance, traveled excessively.”

“Thank God… Do you think I want you experienced? Do you think I want anyone to have kissed you but me? Do you think I want a harlot in my bed?”

And still more:

“I think you have a great deal of sense,” he said. “Except in the bedroom.”

Her eyes widened. “Would you have preferred me to come to you educated?”

“If anyone is going to educate you,” he said, finishing with her petticoat, “it’s going to be me.”

Like, okay. WE GET IT! Only ugly, brown-eyed virgins are to be trusted; anyone else who identifies female is just a salacious idiot out to steal your money and infect your precious dick with syphilis.

And, honestly, I might have forgiven Morgan for his weird hymen obsession, except for the way the author reinforces his misogyny via Jean’s younger sister, Catriona. Catriona, you must understand, is the miniature version of Morgan’s ex-wife. Beautiful, blonde, and blatantly sexual, she’s just Bad News. A Scandalous Scot is sure to emphasize how “amoral” Catriona is as she manages to ruin everyone’s life with her wanton ways. This, again, just serves to push Jean higher up on that pedestal. (Also apparently in the sequel, Catriona gets “punished” for her lascivious ways by being terribly disfigured? COME. ON.)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: if you need to tear other women down in order to make your female protagonist look good, you need to stop writing female characters.

So, between the implausible plotline and the misogyny, I really can’t say that A Scandalous Scot was ever going to be a book I liked. I can’t say that it was terrible, but between all the rather offensive/silly nonsense, it was actually quite boring. Morgan and Jean’s wedding night took three chapters and included him stomping out of the room twice, because they were so intent on squabbling, before they finally consummated the damn thing. This book is slow-paced and mundane, and really nothing to write home about. I was not impressed.